Arguments
No Illusions podcast interview (and elocution lessons from an 11 year old)
Posted on 2 March 2011 by John Cook
Earlier this week, I received an email from podcaster Cameron Reilly of No Illusions. Cameron happens to live in my hometown of Brisbane so this morning, in a rare and unique experience for a blogger, I dropped by his office and actually got to meet a real life human being in the flesh and talk face-to-face. Cameron posted the podcast interview this afternoon, where we talk climate change skepticism, the iPhone app and the customary rapid fire succession of skeptic arguments that always seem to get fired at me.
Here's a direct link to an mp3 of the interview (or you can also find No Illusions on iTunes).
Incidentally, I loaded the podcast onto my iPod and my 11 year old daughter listened to the start of the interview. After the first few minutes, she commented, "Daddy, you don't speak very well. You say umm a lot. My teacher says you say umm when you talk too fast. You should talk slower".
I explained to the Geoffrey-Rush-wanna-be that it's not easy to speak when you have to give a long, continuous answer in an interview. To illustrate the point, I conducted a mock interview with her where I asked her questions and she had to give long, continuous answers. She answered every question slowly, deliberately and flawlessly. Punk kids, think they know everything these days!
She was obviously buoyed by her speaking skills as last night, she challenged me to a "rematch" where Wendy would interview both of us and the first person to "umm" lost the competition. Unfortunately she won again! I'll be challenging her to a 3rd contest tonight - can't let an 11 year old get the better of me!